After Sainz crash in Singapore qualifying: Lando Norris takes pole!

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Lando Norris secured pole position in qualifying in Singapore, thus living up to his role as favorite in the Formula 1 “Night Race.” In the final showdown following a serious accident involving Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Norris was 0.203 seconds faster than Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and 0.316 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Verstappen was unable to improve in the first and second sectors compared to the previous lap, which was cancelled due to the Sainz crash and double yellow, leaving room for speculation as to how fast he would have been on his first Q3 lap.

Fourth place went to George Russell (Mercedes), who was not happy with his qualifying. In Q1, lying in 13th place, he radioed: “I have zero grip, mate. It's totally different to the third practice session, totally different. The tires are totally different.” And in Q2: “I'm really struggling. I don't know where all the grip has gone since practice.”

But in the end, things went better for Russell, and he finished ahead of Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and sensational Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), who was less than three tenths of a second behind Hamilton's third place.

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls), Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (at Ferrari) rounded out the top 10. Leclerc would have actually qualified for 7th place with a time of 1:30.119 minutes. However, his last lap was cancelled due to track limits in turn 2.

On the subject: Result, Qualifying

Ticker: Paddock live with Kevin Scheuren

Stream: Live analysis on YouTube (8:00 p.m.)

What was the cause of the Sainz crash?

There were still 8:04 minutes left on the clock when Q3 had to be interrupted. At that point, Verstappen was in the lead, 0.246 seconds ahead of Piastri. Norris had to abort his lap after setting two fastest times in the first and second sectors.

The cause was a heavy crash by Sainz in the final corner. Sainz was preparing a fast lap, let the Piastri McLaren pass, then stepped on the gas – and slammed the rear of his car into the barriers in the last corner.

Sainz reported on the pit radio: “I don't know if it was cold tires or dirty air. Quite a rip!” His race engineer replied: “Yes, the tires are a bit on the cold side.”

The Spaniard emerged from the wreckage of the Ferrari unharmed, but was unable to improve on his tenth place. He also faced an investigation because he crossed the track on foot while returning to his team.

What was that about Verstappen and the yellow flags?

Suddenly the time monitor flashed: “CAR 1 (VER) TIME 1:29.791 DELETED – DOUBLE YELLOW AT TURN 18”. Verstappen was still wondering on his cool-down lap: “Why was my lap time deleted? I crossed the line before the red light.”

A short time later, a first replay of the scene was broadcast on TV. It showed that the illuminated sign at that point was still clearly green when Verstappen drove past, and Verstappen still took his foot off the accelerator.

Another camera angle later showed that the stewards behind Sainz's crashed car were manually waving two yellow flags. From the outside, it is difficult to determine whether Verstappen in the cockpit had a realistic chance of seeing these two flags.

Alexander Wurz analyzed live in oRf: “He lifted his seat when he saw the car stop. I don't think he did anything wrong. But I'm astonished that his lap time was cancelled.” Because other sanctions are usually explicitly imposed for normal yellow-light violations.

But: The stewards did not wave a single yellow flag, but two yellow flags, and in Formula 1, when there is a double yellow, every lap has been automatically cancelled for several years. For safety reasons.

Was there radio with swear words again?

Verstappen delivers, and not just on the racetrack. Q1 went quite well for him and he easily made it to the next lap in second place behind Norris. But at the end of the segment he was rather sensitive to traffic from slower cars. He radioed: “What an incredible bunch of idiots! They're in the way everywhere.”

However, it is unlikely that there will be another penalty, as the FIA ​​commissioners had already stated in their first Verstappen ruling that they assess situations in the cockpit differently than at official press conferences. No investigation has been launched either.

Why did Red Bull have to worry in Q2?

In Q2, Verstappen had to take a “detour” when he went off the track on his first quick lap in the last corner and his lap time was deleted.

He also had to go out again and couldn't afford to make any mistakes. On the second attempt, however, he briefly took the lead in the Q2 rankings, again with a lap at the limit, and ultimately managed to move up safely. In second place, 0.040 seconds behind Piastri.

There is less confidence for team-mate Perez. He was only in 10th place after the first run and was unable to improve in the second. In the first and second sectors, Perez fell short of his previous best time and an improvement in the third was not enough to meet the average. In the end, he finished 13th, 0.129 seconds behind P10 (Alonso).

“I didn't get the tires into the right temperature window. Q1 was still okay, but in Q2 the grip was much worse,” analyzed Perez.

Along with him, Alexander Albon, Franco Colapinto (both Williams), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) were also eliminated in Q2. Colapinto was only 0.007 seconds slower than Albon, even though he is driving without a Williams update this weekend – but was still annoyed with his own performance.

Which five drivers were eliminated in Q1?

Daniel Ricciardo will probably be competing in his last Grand Prix in Singapore. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said this in an interview with Heaven not confirmed, but not denied either.

And Ricciardo did his part to ensure that this decision is unlikely to be revised before the planned announcement next week. While Tsunoda was 0.369 seconds faster and entered Q2 in tenth place, Ricciardo was eliminated in 16th place. He is 0.127 seconds short of the average.

oRfExpert Wurz said in the live commentary: “That makes the decision even easier.”

Ricciardo himself seemed disappointed after his exit: “Very surprising. Things were actually going well up until qualifying and we had a good feeling on Friday. But today I was far away on every run with soft tyres. I wish I knew why. But I don't.

In addition to Ricciardo, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Valtteri Bottas and Guanyo Zhou (Sauber) were also eliminated in Q1. The usual suspects, too.

Where can you watch the Singapore Grand Prix live?

Unfortunately, it's not available on free TV in Germany. That's the bad news. The good news is: On the Formula1.de YouTube channel (subscribe to the channel now for free!) there is still a live analysis of the highlights and the most important stories of the day every evening in the F1 show with Kevin Scheuren and Christian Nimmervoll.

The live streams start daily at 8:00 p.m. German time and are editorially supported by the seven-person Motorsport Network research team in Singapore. By the way: The daily F1 show is now available not only on YouTube, but also on the new Twitch channel of Formula1.de to see live.

The Singapore Grand Prix will not be broadcast on German free TV. The race can be seen exclusively on pay TV provider Sky. Previews will be broadcast there on Sunday from 12:30 p.m. The race will then start at 2 p.m. (Click here for the complete Formula 1 TV overview including the broadcast times for Austria and Switzerland!).